MATT GAGNON RENOVATED LOFT

We’ve developed a little design-crush over here at Inhabitat. We just can’t get enough of Matt Gagnon. It seems that everything that the designer touches turns to (recycled) gold. We oohed and aaahed at his Paper Table, on display at ICFF, and we are even more impressed with his recent loft renovation in Williamsburg for client Ramona Liberoff, which was recently written up in The New York Times .

Gagnon was charged with renovating Liberoff’s loft using the most environmentally conscious means possible. Given that task, he decided to recycle and reuse much of the old building material to create the new space. He created amazing looking sculptural walls (shown above) by reusing the old wallboard of the original structure. The wallboard was cut into four-inch-wide strips, stacked horizontally (nearly 200 high) and framed by some of the old two-by-fours to create an entryway partition that looks as if it is filled in with slivers of stone.

Gagnon estimates that his treatment diverted 60% of the original wallboard from the dumpster. The remaining two-by-fours were given away on Craigslist. With the bedroom gone, and the space left entirely open, Matt Gagnon created movable screens by threading rubber cords through the ends of maple strips. The leftover maple was sent to over to our favorite Scrapile, the design shop in Williamsburg that creates furniture from discarded wood.

Gagnon also designed a maple veneer panel, mounted on an entryway wall, which serves as “a coat hanger that doesn’t look like a coat hanger.” He cut long inverted U-shapes in the panel and pushed them out from behind to serve as pegs.

The maple coat hanger and recycled wallboard walls are shown above (left) with Matt Gagnon posing in front of them.

You make a really good point about the fact that most of our blog posts are usually a couple short sentences and a link, and are therefore, not very “in-depth” (shall we say). I think there is a presumption that most reader’s attention spans are short when scanning weblogs, and that if readers are interested in reading more in-depth about a subject matter, they will follow the linnks and research it themselves. (Also, of course, those longer articles are much more time-consuming to do for us writers!)

That said, however, we recognize the value of unique, well researched content, and are making a conscious effort to start doing more long-length features like interviews and how-to’s. Thanks for your support and the apt suggestions!

I have read about Matt a lot…but why doesn’t anyone interview him? It seems that the wall board isn’t the only thing recycled around here! I would love to see more designers explaining their work rather than a few hot words and a link. I think this is by far the best design blog out there…with well written pieces….but I am still left wanting more…more interactions…more information about the structures…the materials…You have a more sophisticated format and voice than the other sites and have the oppertunity to really become the true magazine here!